Method of making a deformed bar



July 6, 1937. J. F. FERM ET AL I 2,085,963 Q I D BAR Filed July 12, 1935 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 JIQ JA.

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Patented July 6, 1937 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE BIETHOD OF MAKING A DEFORMED BAR sylvania Application July 12, 1935, Serial No. 30,998

10 Claims.

Our invention relates to a deformed bar such as a forging blank and the method by which it is manufactured.

Forging blanks have been made by die rolling for a considerable period. The methods which have been employed in the past, however, are objectionable for a number of reasons. The principal desideratum of a forging blank is that it shall lie flat in the forging dies, but this resiilt has not been satisfactorily produced by the methods previously practiced.

In U. S. Patent 1,923,017, granted to Witherow et al., there is disclosed a method of making forging blanks by subjecting a leader to rolling in two separate passes, the leader being deformed in the first pass to provide spaced masses of metal, and flattened in the second pass. The two-pass method was subsequently improved and, as a result, a one-pass method disclosed in U. S. Patent 1,998,970, granted to Thomas N. Sloan, came into use. Sloan employs die rolls having matrix grooves of varying width and depth, and forms a forging blank by a. single passage of a leader therethrough to fill, but not over-fill, the matrix grooves. The pass is substantially closed, that is, ithas side walls which prevent excessive lateral flow of the metal and actuallyexert a shaping effect on the leader.

We have improved on the methods of the prior art in that we are able to roll a forging blank in one passage between deforming rolls defining an open pass, that is, without side walls, which compress and elongate a leader in spaced portions, without substantial lateral spreading of the metal thereof. As a result, we are able to produce a forging blank having spaced masses of metal connected by'reduced portions, the blank having substantially flat sides so that it lies squarely in the forging dies and is very easy to manipulate therein. The use of an open pass considerably simplifies the design thereof and reduces roll wear.

In accordance with our invention, we utilize a leader having concave sides. The concavity of the sides may be produced by well known means in the latter stages of rolling the leader. When the leader with concave sides is passed through deforming rolls defining an open pass, the leader is heavily reduced and considerably elongated in spaced portions thereof, and is only slightly reduced and elongated in the remaining portions thereof. In neither case is there any substantial lateral spreading of the leader. There is a slight spreading only in the portions which are more heavily reduced, but this only has the effect of we employ;

Figure 1a is an' end elevation thereof;

Figure 2 is a diagrammatic side elevation, partly in section, of the roll pass by Which the leader is formed into a string of forging blanks;

Figure 3 is a section through one of the rolls along the line III-III of Figure 2.

Figure 4 is a sectional view along the line IV-IV of Figure 2;

Figure 5 is a sectional view similar to Figure3 showing a modified form of rollpass;

Figure 6 is a side elevation of a forging blank produced in accordance with our invention, after it has been sheared from the string with which it was rolled;

Figure 7 is a plan view thereof;

Figure 8 is an end elevation of the blank;

Figure 9 is a sectional view along the line IX-IX of Figure 6;

Figure 10 is a. sectional view along the line X-X of Figure 6; and

Figure 11 is a sectional view along the line XI-XI of Figure 6.

Referring now indetail to the drawings, a leader l0 which is simply a relatively long billet,

has a generally rectangular cross section, the

top H and the bottom l2 thereof being substantially flat. The sides 13 of the leader, however, are concave as shown (somewhat exaggerated) in Figure 1a. The corner edges of the leader are rounded in accordance with the usual practice The leader is formed into a string of forging blanks by passing it between deforming rolls M, with its greater cross sectional dimension perpendicular to the axes of the rolls.

The-rolls 14 have spaced protuberances or projections I5, l6 and I1 thereon, efi'ective to squash down or compress and elongate spaced portions of the leader. The exact conformation and disposition of the projections or protuberances depend, of course, upon the nature of the blank to be produced. Merely by way of example, we have illustrated a blank l8 adapted to be forced into a crank shaft. The blank l8 comprises reduced end portions l9, one of which (as shown at the left in Figure 6) is extended to form a tong-hold 20, enlarged end portions 2 I, reduced middle portions 22 and a slightly reduced middle portion 23. As shown in Figures 8 and 10, the portions I9, 20 and 22 of the blank have curved upper and lower surfaces and relatively fiat sides. The portions 2| and 23 of the blank, as shown in Figures 9 and. 11, are relatively rectangular in section.

From a comparison of Figures 2 and 6, it will be apparent that the projections l5 form the sections l9 and 20 of adjacent blanks in a string. Likewise, projections l6 and. I! form the spaced portions 22 of the blanks. These projections of the rolls are curved as shown at [5a in Figure 4.

to produce the desired contour of the portions I9, 20 and 22. The portions of the rolls between the projections l5 and I6 and I5 and I1 indicated at 24, are fiat except for the fillets 25 (Figure 3) necessary to produce the desired curvature at the corners of the rectangular portions of the blanks. The portions of the roll between the projections l6 and I1, indicated at 25a, form the central enlarged portion 23 of the blanks, and are similar to the roll portions 24 except that they have a slightly larger diameter.

The rolls I4 are provided adjacent the projections l5, I6 and I! with collars 26. The collars 26 serve merely as guides for the tools employed to finish the portions of the roll engaging the leader. The collars 26 do not constitute side walls of a matrix groove in the rolls. There is, in fact, no matrix groove but only a plurality of alternately flat and rounded portions of different diameter. It will be observed that the collars 26 are connected to the fillets 25 by sloping wall portions 21 in the form of roll shown in Figure 3. The collars are actually spaced axially of the rolls from the working portion thereof in the form of roll shown in Figure 5. The curved portions 15a. of the roll faces feather off into the collars 26 by long radius fillets 28 Thus, in no portion of the roll is there any confinement of the leader against lateral spreading. The slight curvature of the fillets 25 and 28, of course, does not preclude such lateral spreading. Rolling of the leader in accordance with our invention is effected without any substantial confinement thereof against lateral spreading or extrusion. In spite of this fact, we are able to produce substantially flat sided blanks by starting with a billet having concave sides.

It will be observed that the rolls M are spaced a considerable distance apart. Even the collars 26, which take no part in the actual reduction of the leader, are separated by a considerable distance, amounting, in a specific case, to 1 The pass between the rolls [4 is thus open at all portions around the roll peripheries. The use of an open pass without side walls has a particular advantage in that the design of the roll pass is thereby greatly simplified and wear on the rolls materially reduced.

By reference to Figure 7, it will be observed that the sides of the finished blank, indicated at I3, are substantially flat considered overall. There is, of course, a slight deviation from a true plane, but this is not such as to prevent the blanks from lying fiat in the dies, thus facilitating manipulation thereof as the forging proceeds. It will be apparent from what has been said, and from the showing of Figure '7, that in those portions of the blank, I9, 20 and 22, which are heavily reduced, the originally concaved side walls of the leader are spread out slightly as the result of the crushing down of the leader so that in the finished product they have a very slight convexity. In those portions of the blank which are only slightly reduced, 2| and 23, the original concavity of the sides remains substantially unaltered. The finished blank, however, has a plurality of enlarged portions connected by portions of reduced cross section, the blank being substantially fiat along its sides, the greatest variations in size being in the dimension measured along the sides. The corner edges of the blank are substantially straight when viewed in plan.

The advantages of our invention over the twopass method or the one-pass method using die rolls having matrix grooves with side walls, will be readily apparent. All the difficulties encountered because of rolling in two passes are avoided. At the same time, our die rolls without side walls are much easier to make than die rolls having side walls exerting a shaping action on the leader. The wear on the rolls is also considerably less because the only action thereofis a substantially direct compression of the leader without any lateral extrusion thereof to fill in the space defined by the side walls of die rolls having matrix grooves provided therewith.

Although We have illustrated and described herein but one preferred practice of our method and one embodiment of the article resulting therefrom, it will be apparent that many changes 1 in both may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention or the scope of our apnded claims. The invention is applicable generally to the rolling of deformed bars and its advantages are not confined to the manufacture of forging blanks, the latter being specifically disclosed herein merely by way of example.

We claim:

1. In a method of making a forging blank having substantially fiat sides so as to lie fiat in a forging die, and spaced masses separated by predetermined distances but connected by inter-' mediate portions of sectional area less than that of said masses, the steps including forming a leader having a generally rectangular section, two opposite concave surfaces, and two opposite substantially fiat surfaces, passing the leader between rolls with the flat surfaces substantially parallel to the roll axes, to form said masses and elongate said intermediate portions by so crushing the leader without substantial confinement thereof against lateral spreading, that the portions suffering greatest deformation are bulged substantially into the plane determined by the edges of the originally concave sides.

2. In a method vof making a forging blank having substantially flat sides so as to lie fiat in a forging die, and spaced masses connected by intermediate portions of less sectional area than said masses, the steps including forming a generally rectangular leader with two opposite concave sides, passing the leader between rolls effective to compress the remaining sides of the leader without substantially confining the concave sides, and form said masses and portions, the portions suffering greatest deformation being bulged substantially into the plane determined by the edges of the originally concave sides.

3. In a method of making a forging blank having substantially fiat sides so as to lie flat in a forging die and spaced masses connected by intermediate portions of less sectional area than said masses, the steps including passing a leader having concave opposite sides between rolls effective to compress the leader progressively in a plane capable of lying fiat in a die, the steps including subjecting a leader with concave sides to a material reduction in thickness between its top and its bottom, in longitudinally spaced portions only.

5. In a method of making a forging blank that will lie fiat in a die, the steps including subjecting a leader to material reduction of its thickness between its top and bottom, in longitudinally spaced portions only, and limiting lateral extrusion of the leader by concaving its sides before said reduction.

6. In a method of making a forging blank capable of lying flat in a forging die, the steps including forming a leader having concave sides, and subjecting the leader to material reduction in the thickness between its top and bottom, in longitudinally spaced portions only, by rolling in a pass open at the sides.

7. In a method of making a forging blank that will lie fiat in a forging die, the steps including providing a leader with concavesides, subjecting the leader to a single rolling pass effective to materially reduce the. top-to-bottom dimension of longitudinally spaced portions only of the leader without confinement thereof against lateral spreading.

8. In a method of making a forging blank that will lie flat in a forging die, the steps including rolling a leader with concave sides, positioning the leader with said sides substantially vertical, passing it between horizontal rolls to reduce slightly the vertical dimension of the leader, and reducing and elongating longitudinally spaced portions thereof only, to a greater extent, without substantially confining the leader against lateral flow.

9. In a method of rolling a forging blank capable of lying flat in a forging die and having one substantially uniform cross sectional dlmension, the other cross sectional dimension varying along the length of the bar, the steps including passing a leader between rolls having circumferentially spaced protuberances effective to reduce materially the height of longitudinal spaced portions only of the leader, and limiting the maximum wideningof the leader as a result of the rolling, by imparting concavity to the sides of the leader before subjecting it to rolling.

10. In a method of making a forging blank that will lie fiat in a forging die, the steps including forming a leader having concave sides and a substantially flat top and bottom, and passing the leader between rolls having circumferentially spaced protuberances effective to reduce materially the height of longitudinally spaced portions only of the leader without confining said sides against lateral flow.

' JOHN F. FERM. FRED S. HIGH. 

